


maybe it will turn out this time (wait for me, i'm coming)

by TheFledglingDM



Series: maybe [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Badass Female Ladies, F/M, Force Visions, Hadestown Flavor, M/M, Post-Canon Fix-It, Redeemed Ben Solo, Road Trip Rescue, The Rise of Skywalker spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:14:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22079053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFledglingDM/pseuds/TheFledglingDM
Summary: Their thread is stretched thin and fraying, but it holds fast. Rey will follow it to the ends of the galaxy if it means getting Ben back.
Relationships: Finn & Rey (Star Wars), Poe Dameron & Finn & Rey, Poe Dameron/Finn, Rey & Rose Tico, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: maybe [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1577233
Comments: 4
Kudos: 52





	maybe it will turn out this time (wait for me, i'm coming)

**Author's Note:**

> title taken from two _hadestown_ songs: "road to hell" and "wait for me"

i.

Rey awoke to a headache and a sickly-sweet layer of _something_ in her mouth. Dimly, she mentally chastised Rose for handing her a honeyed mead when she’d barely eaten properly for a few days, even if it had been accompanied by some kind of delicious, spicy meat on a skewer and rice and beans.

The ache in her muscles had at least loosened, and her chest was still empty, but not as _hollow_ \- a complex tangle of emotions that was more than she could wrap her head around this early in the morning. Already she was thinking about how she was going to get through today, what she would do, and then tomorrow, and the day after that.

A year ago, she had thought that she would live and die on Jakku waiting for her parents to come back. Then her entire life purpose was about saving the galaxy and training to be a Jedi and ending a war. And now?

_And now?_

She closed her eyes, tucking her face into her pillow. Now, at least, she slept off this hangover.

Rey fell into a doze. The tension in her temples eased as her breathing evened out, and she fell into a dream.

_She stood in the vast, endless expanse of space. White stars and nebulas in shades of purple, green, blue, gold ghosted around her. Her feet were balanced on a silvery walkway, spindly and stretching into the abyss. Her right foot sat in front of her left, her arms stretched out on either side for balance, and Rey walked along the thread like a trapeze artist. She walked, and walked, and walked, and she could have been moving light years with each step or just hovered in place and would not have known the difference._

_Slowly the space around her changed - the stars fading and the gaseous nebulas slowly changing to dark purples, reds, and grays. The vacuum around her grew - darker? An odd way to describe space, but she could think of no other words. The stars tapered off here in deep space, the clouds around her growing darker and darker._

_She walked on with only the silver thread as her guide. Rey looked back once and saw how her road stretched on into oblivion. She had no idea where she was going, but she was close to something, she just knew it. There was a pulling behind her breastbone that made her walk on. She would walk this line forever._

_The thread shuddered under her feet. Not enough for Rey to lose her balance, but enough to let her know that there was something on the other end of the line. She picked up her speed, walking to jogging to running. There was something at the end of this, she knew it, and if she ran fast enough -_

Rey twitched awake and hopped onto her elbows. Her chest heaved, sweat covering her forehead and soaking her sleeping clothes to her skin. She felt like she had run for miles. She pounded a fist into the bed, cursing. She had been close. She had been _so close._

ii.

Over the next few days, the endless partying wound down and people left to carry on their lives. Among them were several members of the resistance, searching for lost families and jobs and old displaced friends. Those left behind were set to cleaning up the surrounding forest and run inventory on their remains of food, personnel, and parts. Finally, Poe and Finn called a meeting of the remaining members of the resistance to figure out what to do now.

Rey sat on top of a holotable beside Rose and counted the remaining resistance members: Poe, Finn, Rose, Jessika, Zorii (Rey was surprised she was still hanging around), Jannah, Maz, Chewie, Snap, C-3PO, R2, D-O, BB-8, and some two dozen others filled the room. And for the next two and a half hours, they kicked around the ultimate question of What To Do Next.

The most obvious answer was to disband. The First and Final Order had been defeated, Palpatine killed, the Senate liberated. Their entire goal for existing had been accomplished.

But Poe and Finn were worried about the power vacuum for Evil Shit (to use Poe’s words) that the downfall of the Order would create. Rose pointed out the uncounted millions of displaced refugees who were in need of homes, food, clothing, fuel, medicine. Jannah expressed concerns about what to do with the liberated but rudderless stormtroopers. Maz reminded them of the dozens, hundreds of cruel regimes and cults that still existed across the galaxy. And finally, C-3PO of all people asked Rey what she wanted to do with the Jedi Order.

“Oh,” Rey said, surprised and yet more surprised that she hadn’t thought of this before now. “Do I get to decide?”

“You _are_ the last Jedi,” Rose reminded her. “If anyone is going to make that choice, it’s you.”

If she were honest, Rey just wanted to take a break, heal her bruises and bumps, fix up the wrecked ships, keep moving and working and doing anything to fill the emptiness that dogged her every step. But she had what old Jedi texts she had with her when Luke burned down his home and both his and Leia’s lightsabers in a drawer.

And maybe she wasn’t ready to accept that she was the last Jedi.

“I’ll think it over,” Rey said, and the meeting moved on because the Jedi Stuff was really more Rey’s thing. The meeting disbanded with no clear consensus or decision made, but Rey left with Rose, Finn, Poe, and BB-8 to start fixing up the _Falcon._

It took about three days of nearly backbreaking labor. Rey worked over twelve hour shifts - not from any time crunch, but just for the long-missed pleasure of making something from nothing with only her hands. And if she worked hard enough, long enough, hopefully she would fall asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow and there would be no more dreams.

But every night, without fail, she dreamed she was walking that thread again. No matter how much she walked or how fast she ran, no matter how _sure_ she was that there was something on the other end, she couldn’t reach it.

As the weeks wore on, she found herself drained and lethargic when she woke. She would drag herself out of bed to keep working, her sluggish arms trembling and fumbling fingers catching over the knobs and tools of the ships she was fixing.

When Rose or Finn asked her what was going on, Rey would just tell them she was exhausted from all the work she was doing, or still quietly grieving. Rose accepted her explanation with a somber smile and a hug and an extra ration of coffee on difficult mornings. Finn studied her with a skeptical gleam in his eye, but he knew by now that no pushing or cajoling would make Rey confess something she wasn’t ready to tell. He would only nod, jaw tight, and leave her to her work.

It got to the point that Rey found herself meditating in the evenings, drawing up her reserves of energy before bed one night. Consequences be damned, she _would_ get to the end of this thread, no matter what. That way, when she went to bed, finally dipping into sleep after a bout of anxiety-

_\- She ran, arms and legs pumping, breath coming out in huffs, her lungs straining. The galaxy passed her by as she sprinted. The sights were familiar now, the stars making familiar patterns and the nebulas glittering. The dream was always the same._

_But she raced along the silver line as the clouds darkened in a way she had grown accustomed to. Rey reached into herself, bolstering her weary body with the Force, and the silver thread below her suddenly flared with brilliant light. It lit a path like a beacon, and Rey followed it. She had the vague sensation that she was moving in a downward trajectory._

_The thread quivered beneath her. As if it had been tugged on the other end, the fine line growing taut._

_“Hello?” Rey yelled. Her voice echoed around her, even though she was still in space. Was it the dream? Or something else? Was this where she lost her mind, and this thread was actually her tenuous grip on sanity, and if it snapped she would descend into madness? Would she welcome that, after everything she had suffered?_

_Everything was oddly silent, and all she could hear was the rush of blood in her ears. “Hello? Who’s there?”_

_The thread flared again. It glowed, warm and pulsing, as if a heartbeat, but at a pace so much slower than Rey’s. It was almost comatose, like the pulse of Finn’s machines when he was healing after the Battle of Starkiller Base._

_The pulse radiated up her legs, her spine, into her chest. It was warm. Impossibly, achingly familiar, but it couldn’t - it couldn’t be -_

_“Ben?” Rey cried. She picked up her pace. “Ben!”_

_And she ran, and the thread bottomed out beneath her, and she fell -_

Rey awoke with a jolt, gasping for breath. Her heart squeezed painfully in her chest. Tears and sweat mingled on her cheeks. She couldn’t get enough air.

There was a knock on the door. Rey palmed the sweat from her forehead and stumbled to the door. It slid open, and there stood Finn. He looked as haggard as she felt.

“Rey,” he said, his voice like gravel. “ _What_ is going on?”

Rey blinked. “How do you - what is -?”

“I’m force-sensitive,” Finn blurted. Rey stared at him, blinking her surprise and wondering if she _had_ gone mad. Finn added, “It’s what I wanted to tell you in the desert.”

“Oh. That’s really cool,” Rey said. Certain events of the past year fell into place, Finn’s odd tics and almost preternatural aiming abilities and sense of peoples’ feelings making sense. “I kind of had a feeling, when I felt you in the Force, something has been different for awhile now.”

Finn blinked. “I thought you’d be more impressed.”

“I am impressed,” Rey said. “I’m always impressed by you. But why are you awake?”

“Your - thing!” Finn cried, waving a hand in her general direction. “Whatever has been bothering you, wearing you out the last few weeks. It’s a feeling. I just can feel you. Your dreams are making waves so big I’m surprised I didn’t wake Poe up.”

“You and Poe are sleeping in the same bed now?” Rey asked. Finn shot her a look.

“Don’t distract me.”

“Fat chance. Since when?” Rey asked, acquiescing as Finn took her arm and pulled her into her bedroom, letting the door shut behind them. They sat on Rey’s bed, she folding her legs beneath her, Finn’s broad back resting against the wall.

“Since this all wrapped up,” Finn said. “Now will you please tell me what’s got you running miles in your dreams?”

“It’s hard to explain,” Rey said. “It’s just…” 

And she tried to explain the thread to Finn. The one in her dreams and the one that wrapped around her heart. She told him how she feared it one day snapping.

“What do you think it’s connected to?” Finn asked.

Rey stared. “You think it’s connected to something?”

“I think you think it is,” Finn said. Rey looked down at the hands she was twisting in her lap, picking at her fingernails. He put a hand on her knee. “I think you _hope_ it is. Given this dyad-thing you told me about.”

And it was amazing Rey had not fully gleaned before that Finn was Force-Sensitive. He had a natural way with people that she had always envied. She had thought it was part of his and maybe it was, but this ran deeper. Which was why Rey finally explained the dyad she shared with Ben Solo, their long and messy not-relationship of missed opportunities and could-have-beens. How she had held him and kissed him and _hoped_ for something for _herself_ and watched it dissolve before her eyes.

“And I don’t know if this thread is just me trying to work my way through the loss, or if the thread is more...literal,” Rey finished. “And I want to hope, but I’m scared to hope anymore.”

Finn was quiet for a long while. “Have you gone to the end the the line?”

“I can’t,” Rey said. “I don’t have the strength to do it.”

“What if I helped?” Finn offered. At Rey’s blank expression, he elaborated. “I can help channel the Force. Have you tried to follow this thread while you’re awake?”

“No,” Rey admitted. “I think I’m afraid to.”

Finn squeezed her knee. “You’ve never let fear stop you before.”

“This is different,” Rey said. “It’s like - before, the stakes were so much higher than myself. The galaxy and saving trillions of lives trumped my fears. But this is so much more personal. If I lose this, it’s like I’d lose half of myself.” 

But what had Maz told her? _You will heal, child, so long as you follow your heart. Do not let fear paralyze you._

“You deserve more than this, after everything you’ve been through,” Finn told her. “And like - what kind of ending would this be, otherwise? The Resistance and the Jedi go on about _hope_ and _rebellion_ and _the light_ and then as soon as Kylo-Ben-whoever tried to, you know, hope and rebel and come back to the light side, he died? That’s bullshit and Rey, you should fight it. Because this isn’t fair. There has to be something more than that.”

“I thought you hated him,” Rey said around a watery hiccup. When had she started to tear up? She wasn’t sure, but she scrubbed the back of her hand over her eyes to wipe the water away.

“I did. I think I still do. But _you_ care about him, and _you_ believe in him,” Finn told her, “And even if I don’t trust him, I trust you and your judgment. That’s good enough for me. And maybe I can at least get behind the idea that he should have had a chance to be more than what he was. Because that’s the chance I had, and Jannah and the other former troopers.”

Finn reached over to take Rey’s hands. She forced herself to look up to meet his gaze. His eyes were wide and dark and so unbearably understanding and kind.

“You’re a rebel, Rey. This rebellion is _yours._ And if you want to rebel against the galaxy or the Force or the _stars,_ I will help you.”

“Even if it’s for Ben Solo?” Rey asked. There was a desperately hopeful note to her voice that she couldn’t hide. By force of habit he made a dubious expression before he schooled his features into something more neutral, a process so _Finn_ that she giggled despite the gravity of the conversation.

“Like I said, if he’s what you want,” Finn said. “You say that he came back for you, gave his life for yours. And I can feel how much you hurt, Rey. And if following this thread can at least give you some kind of closure, I want to help you. I feel the same if Poe were gone.”

Rey blinked back tears and hugged Finn tight. “Thank you,” she whispered, “Thank you, thank you, _thank you_ for not thinking I’m crazy.”

“I’m not sure I don’t,” Finn said even as he returned the embrace. “I mean, I guess if you look at him long enough, he’s okay-looking? There’s just a lot of _man_ there, which, I guess if that’s what you’re into -”

Rey pinched him in the side, Finn yelped, and despite herself, Rey laughed.

iii.

They make a plan, and it goes like this:

Rey and Finn would engage in something the old Jedi texts called joint meditation, pooling their focus together and following the thread while they were awake. Finn convinced Rey to have a group of trusted friends there if it went poorly. Thus later that day, Rey and Finn sat cross-legged on the floor across from each other. Around them sat Poe, Rose, Jessika, and a bemused Jannah and Zorii.

“What are we watching for, exactly?” Jannah asked. “I don’t mind, I’m just a bit lost.”

“We’re the support if this goes poorly,” Rose said softly. She met Rey’s gaze and gave her a bracing smile. “You can do this.”

Rey nodded and met Finn’s gaze. His hands were open, palms up, cushioning Rey’s hands when she placed her palms over his. He gripped her hands once, tightly, thumbs tracing over the back of her palms. Rey nodded back, once, feeling like her heart was in her throat. She inhaled once, twice, soothing her heart rate.

_You’re a rebel, Rey,_ Finn had told her, _And if you want to rebel against the galaxy or the Force or the stars…_

She did. She would go anywhere if it meant getting him back.

Rey closed her eyes. It took a few extra moments to fall into a true meditation, given their audience and her awareness of Finn’s presence in the Force. But steadily she slipped into a meditation, her awareness expanding. Finn was a soothing balm in the Force, a font of comfort and strength, an anchor and a focus. Again Rey was amazed she had never realized before how Finn bent the Force around him. His presence was different than Rey’s - rather than Rey’s clear militant focus, Finn was cool, soothing. An empath, rather than a fighter.

Her focus expanded, taking in the presence of her friends - all of them burning so bright, so clear, like fire and stars. They were _alive._ Rey was almost distracted by the sudden sweeping relief that they were alive, they had made it out and made it through. It was a miracle, if Rey believed in those. 

Finn’s force presence gently prodded her, soothing her heightened emotions and letting Rey return to her task. She reached into her chest, grasping at that thread, finding it latched tightly behind her sternum. She grasped it with her mind, with both hands, and tugged, following it, following -

_Here she was again, in the vastness of the galaxy. The thread was a silver road stretching beyond and beyond. With the impatience of practice, Rey took off. She no longer paused to take in the gasses and stars - her only focus was following wherever this thread led._

_She ran, and ran, light years passing her by. After an indeterminable period of time, she reached the area where the light faded, where the clouds grew dark and noxious. The thread flickered, flashing off the clouds like strobe lights._

_This time, as Rey descended, she held on with both hands and both legs, allowing the Force that Finn was focusing on to flow through her. The clouds grew closer, heavier, and Rey could almost feel them curl around her. There was something predatory about them and the way they tried to catch on the hem of her robes, her arms, and Rey knew if she stopped moving they would try to ensnare her._

_It was like a dream, the way Rey walked now, following a winding thread that flared with light like a heartbeat. She knew she was getting close to something, praying she could make it to the end -_

_And then she was there, standing on the thread as it wound itself tightly around an individual - a man, tall and broad, hair dark and skin white and years erased from his face - was he sleeping? Dead? The thread flared in time with a soft, rhythmic pounding like the beating of his heart._

_Rey approached, studying the way the silver thread wound around and around and around the man’s body, anchoring him. The thread went through his chest, behind his sternum, much like Rey’s._

_“Hurry, you must,” Came the sudden voice. Rey spun, searching for its source and finding none._

_“We are all the Jedi,” said the second voice, the timbre deep and smooth. “And we reach across the millennia to help you now.”_

_“We don’t want to end,” Said a woman, “We don’t want you to be the last - but we can’t support him much longer. Please, Rey, hurry!”_

_“How?” Rey begged, “How do I get here?”_

_“Follow,” said a new voice and it was Luke, and Rey felt his strength and certainty wash over her. He was at peace, here at home in the Force. “Follow the thread, Rey.”_

_The voices crowded her, encouraging her, even as the vision started to fade in the wake of Rey and Finn’s fading strength. It was like her last few moments of consciousness on Exegol, the voices chanting to her:_

_“You can do it, Rey -”_

_“We’ll hold him as long as we can -”_

_“Bring my grandson home -”_

_“Bring my son home, Rey -”_

Rey’s eyes snapped open and she sucked in a great, heaving breath. Then another, and another, like she could not get enough air, again, her body curling in on itself in exhaustion -

Hands surrounded her, supporting her. One at her back. Another over her face. Rey realized she was shaking and sobbing.

“Ben’s alive,” she said, “He’s alive, he’s _alive_ -” 

And she fainted.

iv. 

Rey and Finn slept for ten hours.

Rose explained to her after they awoke, offering them both Maz’s broth soup and Jessika Snap’s bizzare electrolyte drink. They had sat on the floor for no fewer than six hours in their meditative state. The others had filtered in and out, though Rose and Poe and BB-8 stayed the entire time. When they came out of it, Finn had immediately crumpled in a faint into Poe’s arms. Rey had made it for another thirty seconds, the aftershocks of her vision leaving her hysterical. Rose and Jannah had supported her, trying to soothe her, but to not avail. Rey had passed out between one exhausted breath and the next. 

Rey was still tired, and Finn looked feverish and weary from the meditation - Rey had explained he might suffer from the sustained meditation, but neither had expected the full-body aches or exhaustion. As soon as she could stand up, Rey asked R2 to bring her a map, and she set out to plot the trip.

It took two days of work, with Rey, Finn, and Poe sitting together in the medical wing with R2, BB-8, and D-O, using their shared knowledge of the galaxy, the vision, the Force, and star charts to figure out a trajectory. Finally, between Rey’s vision, Poe’s knowledge, and Finn’s odd sense - he could look at a proposed path and shake his head, just saying “no, not that” - they had a path. Rey presented it to the two men, Rose, Jessika, Zorii, and Jannah the evening of the second day. Zorii pointed out the first and largest issue.

“That’s in the middle of the Unknown Regions.”

Rey didn’t even bother to try and dress it up. “Yes.”

“That’s unclaimed, dangerous, asteroid-ridden, gravitationally-challenged, electro-static _bullshit_ airspace,” Zorii said. “And who knows how much of the Final Order may still be trapped there, kicking around, all upset that we kicked their asses?”

“I don’t know,” Rey admitted.

Zorii leveled her with a glare through her helmet. “This flight path is insane.”

“I know.”

“Okay, well, as long as you do,” Zorii said. She rolled her shoulders. “When do we leave?”

“I’m leaving tomorrow,” Rey told them. 

“She said _we_ ,” Rose reminded her. “And we mean it.”

Rey scowled. “I’m not going to drag you all to the most dangerous region of space for this.”

“Good thing you’re not dragging us, then,” Jessika said. “We’re already packed.”

“But -” Rey tried to protest, but Rose interrupted her.

“This idea is insane. So you need a crew. You need someone who can fight and shoot - Zorii and Jannah. You need a pilot - Jessika. You need a medic - Jannah. You need a tech - me.” Rose said.

“And yes, I know you can do all of those things on your own. But you don’t have to.”

“Sounds like a hell of a way to die, in any case,” Zorii said. Jannah shot her a look, rolling her eyes with a touch of fondness. 

“It’s a rescue mission.” She said, catching Rey’s eye and smiling. 

Rey looked at Poe and Finn. Finn was still too exhausted to travel, if the shadows under his eyes and the gaunt, stretched taut skin under his eyes was any indication. And Rey knew Poe - the leader, the general, Finn’s partner - could not leave. Poe nodded to her. It was a blessing and an encouragement.

“Okay,” Rey said.

They were up early the next morning. The _Falcon_ was fixed up and fueled and supplied with spare parts, food, and medical supplies. Rey snuck into Finn’s room in the medical bay to say goodbye and almost squeaked when she found Poe and Finn curled up on the same bed, Poe curled protectively around Finn’s body even in sleep. But Poe blinked awake and grinned up at her from the bed like this happened every day.

“I figured you would come,” Poe said, his voice rough with sleep and sitting up. 

“I wanted to say goodbye, in case -” _In case this is a fool’s mission and we all die,_ Rey’s head helpfully supplied. She leaned down to press a gentle kiss to Finn’s forehead. His skin was still a touch too warm, but he was too deeply asleep to react. Rey reached over to hug Poe goodbye.

“Get him back, Rey,” Poe said. His voice was thick. Rey remembered Poe and Ben had grown up together, friends until Ben had been sent to Luke’s Jedi training. “You can do this.”

He pulled back. “And this little guy insisted on going with you,” he told her, and BB-8 rolled forward with a beep. 

“Oh, Poe, I can’t,” Rey said. “He may get hurt, and I remember the last time I took him along -”

“He’ll keep you safe,” Poe said. His tone was firm and final and so much like Leia’s that Rey was almost dizzy. “He’ll keep you safe because Finn and I can’t. That matters more to me than a scratch. And he _wants_ to go.”

Poe hugged her again. Rey tucked her face into the nook between his neck and shoulder, feeling Poe do the same to her. He smelled of engine grease and Finn’s aftershave and the sterile sheets of the bed.

“Be safe,” He told her. “Be safe, because the ending of this story would really suck otherwise.”

v.

The cockpit of the _Falcon_ was not built to hold five. Rey sat in the pilot’s seat, Jessika the co-pilot. Rose, Jannah, and Zorii hovered above them, watching Rey input their flight path and trying not to trip over BB-8 who was rolling below them. Rey estimated their trip to the Unknown Regions would take some two and a half days, though stopping to refuel would probably make it three. Rey found herself anxiously bouncing her leg as the Falcon took off, the twin weights of Luke and Leia’s sabers on her hips feeling heavier than they really were.

As they traveled, Rey would feel out that thread. She was not sure if it was part of the dyad - which felt different now that Ben was barely clinging to life - or the doing of the Jedi keeping her and Ben tethered together, but she was able to make minute changes to their travels to keep themselves on track. The Unknown Regions were as chaotic and ever-changing as she anticipated, but she was able to feel the way they morphed and shifted even halfway across the galaxy.

“How do you do that?” Jessika asked in the afternoon on the first day, as Rey adjusted their heading for the third time. “The Force thing. I’m just curious what it’s like.”

Rey frowned, trying to put words to it. “It’s like...you know that feeling when you can’t remember where you put something, and you’re _really sure_ it’s in a certain toolbox? Even if you can’t clearly remember putting there? And you go over and it’s there? Like that. Or,” She thought back to the day she met Finn, the first time she laid eyes on Ben. “Or when you meet someone for the first time, and you know you haven’t met before, but they feel familiar?”

Like an old friend. Like coming home. Like the future opening itself up before you, a silver thread leading into the beyond, and you follow it.

Jessika thought on that for a few moments. “I think I can understand that. Like the first time I flew a fighter, and I knew that’s where I belonged.”

Rose looked up from where she was doing some work on BB-8’s circuits on the floor. “Like when Paige died. I don’t know how I knew, but I knew she was gone before anyone told me. Like I felt something go out.”

Rose rarely talked about her sister. Aside from the night Rey and Rose first met and talked about their respective losses, Rey couldn’t remember a time Rose had broached the topic. Certainly not as easily as she spoke now. 

Zorii and Jannah didn’t say anything, but Rey noticed the way they met each other’s gaze across the holotable over their board game. The eye contact lingered a few seconds too long before they both looked away.

“Some of the other troopers seemed to have it,” Jannah said. “Most of it was in really small ways. One or two could heal better than anyone I’d met. One was the best tracker I’d ever seen. An older trooper who became a mother knew when her child had fallen in a river from five hundred yards away.”

Rey nodded. “The Force is in everyone. Some are more sensitive than others, can control it - but everyone is part of it.”

Rose peered up at her, a spare screw between her lips so it didn’t roll away. Slightly muffled, she asked, “So, what _are_ you going to do about the Jedi thing?”

Rey felt a lurch in her stomach. In her grief and her drive to save Ben, she had completely ignored her other responsibilities. She had no better an idea of what she wanted to do now than when C-3PO had asked a month ago. If Rey were honest with herself, it was because she was waiting to see how this rescue went, at least so she wouldn’t have to decide on her own.

“I’m not sure,” She confessed. “I may be a Jedi, but I don’t know if I want to embrace everything that the Jedi training entailed - taking children from their parents for training and sequestering them on some planet, the black-and-white mentality, the forgoing of personal relationships.”

“The last one makes sense,” Zorii teased from the next room. Jannah kicked her in the ankle so Rey wouldn’t have to.

Rey laughed, despite the topic and the mission. “But I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to find other people out there and train them, much as I think I’d be a poor teacher. I want to at least give them the tools to control their powers and the information to pick what they want to do. The ability to differentiate between Light and Dark uses of the Force. Because the Force just - _is._ We’re the ones who use it for good or evil purposes.”

The other four were peering at her. Rey shrugged one shoulder. “Basically, I have no idea.”

“Well, you deserve some time to figure it out,” Rose said. “I know everyone at the base is still trying to figure out what we do from here on out.”

The rest of the first day was spent in long, rambling, circular discussions of what they all wanted to do after this. The one undercurrent Rey captured from everyone’s ideas, however, was that no one wanted to part ways.

Rey and Jessika switched places with Rose and Zorii so they could get a few hours of sleep. Rey took the captain’s quarters and was out cold almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.

_She dreamed she was back on the thread, walking again. But this time she was not alone. At her side, walking on nothing, was the squat, short figure of an alien with a face wrinkled in age and with huge pointed ears._

_“Far, you have traveled,” the alien said. “Ideas for the Jedi, you have.”_

_Rey blinked. “Yes, I do.”_

_“What he means,” said a new voice, and it was a man on Rey’s left. He was young, handsome, his voice accented and his hair and beard neatly trimmed, “Is he finds your ideas for the Jedi a horrifying break from tradition. Ironic, considering the Jedi attachment to tradition is a large part of what led to things getting so out of hand.”_

_“Harrumph,” the small alien said. “Value still, tradition has, Master Kenobi.”_

_Rey would have tripped had she not been dreaming. Master Kenobi laughed. “And did you not encourage young Master Skywalker to let the sacred Jedi texts burn, Master Yoda?”_

_“Change, I meant,” Master Yoda said. Rey’s knees nearly did buckle at that. “Throw away entirely, I did not.”_

_But he looked up at Rey, face wizened and scowling, and winked._

_“Hard, you have worked, Master Rey,” he said. “Changes, you will make.”_

_“He means that he and the rest of the old guard Jedi masters support your desire to change the traditions,” Master Kenobi said. “For too long did we languish in our ways, failing to change as the galaxy around us did. You can truly encourage the Jedi to rise again. If you wish it.”_

_“And if I don’t?” It was an odd question, but it came out of Rey’s mouth before she could stop it. She knew she wanted to do something to support those still connected to the Force, even if the old Jedi way faded away._

_“Like her, I do,” Master Yoda murmured while Master Kenobi laughed._

_“Then I suppose we can’t stop you,” He said. “Unorthodox your training may have been, you are now a Master in your own right and have the authority of all of us former Jedi to make the changes you will.”_

_“All of you?” Rey asked, a question in her voice._

_“With Ben Solo, the Masters Skywalker are,” Master Yoda told her. “Holding on, he is. Find him, you must.”_

_“He grows weary, as do we,” Master Kenobi told Rey gravely. “We will hold on as long as we can, but it becomes more difficult as he grows weaker. Follow your dyad, Master Rey, and you will find him.”_

vi.

The _Falcon_ shuddered under Rey’s white-knuckled grip on the stick, Their first jump into Unknown Region territory was wracked with such turbulence BB-8 needed to send his emergency standardization cables shooting into the walls. Rose managed to cling to the back of Rey’s chair and Zorii’s finely-tuned instincts kicked in and she grasped a handhold on the wall, but Jannah was unprepared and crashed bodily into the ceiling. She collapsed just as hard on top of Rose.

“Shit!’

_“Fuck!”_

“Sorry!” Rey and Jessika yelled together.

Zorii hefted the two women up. “Hell of a welcome into the Regions.”

“Shut it,” Jessika said. Rey weaved them around asteroids, snarling with frustration. There was no wind in space, Rey knew this, and yet the moving, shifting gas clouds and asteroids buffeted the _Falcon_ the way the waters had when she was sailing toward the ruined Death Star. An asteroid smashed into the roof of the ship and an alarm went off.

“It’s the pressurization, _shit,_ ” Rose hissed. She reached into her tool belt. “I’ve got it, I’ve got it - c’mon, BB.”

They ran (and rolled) off, Rose keeping a hand on the wall to remain steady. This was the hardest part of the journey, they all knew - the part where there were no maps or paths or even stars, just grit and courage and a bit of stupidity and the Force (“and _huge_ balls, like, Poe _wishes_ he had,” Jessika had said earlier, grinning at Rey in a moment of lightheartedness). Jannah was down below in the gallery, firing asteroids out of their way. Her aim could give Finn a run for his money. Nevertheless, a blind spot made let an asteroid careen into their flank. Rey’s head snapped forward so hard it cracked against the handles in her hands. The _Falcon_ tilted nauseatingly before Jessika course-corrected them. Dimly, Rey heard Zorii yelling over their headset:

“Rey, this guy better _blow your mind_ in bed, or I’m going to be _so pissed_ about this.”

Rey didn’t bother to respond - there was another asteroid field ahead, and she needed as much luck and foolishness and Force as possible to get them through it. If she blinked, if she concentrated, she could almost see the thread they were following as it wove between asteroid and dark, glittering nebula.

“Hold on!” Rey yelled, and she twisted - the _Falcon_ curled into a barrel roll, once, twice, and dimly she heard the sound of someone retching. But they spun and dove and swooped and then they were clear, free, and there was only dark, glittering space open before them.

Rey slowed the ship and yanked off her headset. She wiped the sweat away from her forehead and exchanged an exhausted grin with Jessika.

“That was sick,” Jessika said. 

“That was awful,” Rose said, still looking a bit pale. “Can we never do that again?”

“Can we do it again tomorrow?” Jannah yelled from below, sounding far too gleeful. 

Rey breathed in, out, regaining her focus. The dark sky outside was familiar. This was all _familiar._

“I think we’re here,” She murmured. She pointed in the vague direction of the cloud. “It’s in there.”

“Stars,” Jannah swore softly. “Right in there, huh?”

Rey closed her eyes, feeling out in the Force. Something was there. It was close. 

“Yes.”

Zorii sighed. “Let’s go, then.”

Rey pushed the thrusters and they inched into the abyss. The nebula curled around them like crushed velvet, black and glittering. _Dark_ in more ways than one - Rey breathed in and could taste the dark side of the Force like smoke on her tongue. But under it, a curl of light so bright it could burn.

_I’m coming, I’m coming,_ Rey thought as she pulled in. As they sailed through the cloud, Rey saw on their scanner that there was a solid mass in its center. Too large to be an asteroid but to small to be a proper planet, it was large enough to set down the ship and walk about a quarter mile, and that was it.

“It’s odd a satellite of this size would have its own atmosphere,” Jessika observed. 

“‘Atmosphere’ in a loose sense,” Rose said as she examined a readout screen on a wall. “Nothing there that’s breathable, and it’s far below and habitable temperature known to existence.” She looked at Rey. “Even if he’s there, Rey, I don’t know what you’ll find.”

“Or it’s so below livable temperatures it froze him in a stasis,” Jessika said.

“Only one way to find out,” Jannah said. She tossed Rey a space suit. “Put on a jacket, honey.”

Rey bit back a grin at the endearment and zipped up the jacket. It was bulky but warm, with its own ventilation and oxygen system. When she put on the helmet, it sealed and pressurized with a tight _click._ BB-8 came rolled out beside her.

“I’m sorry, I think you’ll have to stay here,” Rey said. She tried to kneel down, but the suit made it tricky. “I’m scared you’ll get frozen to the planet. I’ll be back soon, okay?”

BB-8 beeped something encouraging at her, and Rey forced a confident smile that she did not feel. In fact, she felt positively sick as she moved her way through the airlocks and stepped onto the surface. It was lightless and cold, with what looked like dusky red snow dusting black, shiny rock. Whatever it was had broken millennia ago, but the stone was too clean and perfectly carved to be natural.

Rey followed a path that curved and rose, her breathing loud and echoing in the breathing chamber of the helmet. It was eerily silent here - no wind, the sound of her footsteps muffled. Out of the snow rose a stone staircase made of the same black stone as the rock. She followed it - the path kept curving and it was _really_ making her anxious - until she reached the top and it opened into an antechamber. Rey almost squeaked.

The chamber opened into a hexagonal room that once might have been opulent and grand. There were curved pillars along each wall, and the paintings that may have once adorned the place were faded beyond any kind of recognition.

And laying there on the floor through what looked like a hole in the ceiling he had made lay Ben Solo.

If she weren’t so stressed and worn after their trek through the asteroid field, Rey might have laughed. Ben was laying on his back, and he could have been asleep for as peaceful as he looked - scar healed, face smooth of worries. Blood had frozen to his temple, the corner of his mouth, his side. Rey felt his chest, felt barely-healed broken bones - _holding on, he is,_ Master Yoda had said, were the Jedi sustaining him as best as they could? Taking the energy housed in this space to keep Ben Solo alive?

_Are you there?_ Rey asked, begged through their bond. She felt for their thread, how it was strong on her end and stretched on and on, even with its other half right in front of her. _Ben, can you hear me? Please wake up, please. You had so much more to do. You can continue your path to redemption, or rebuild the Jedi, or live your life as you please. Please come back. Be with me, be with me, be with me._

Rey held her breath, grasping his hands. They were so cold she could feel them through her suit, which was not a good sign, and she couldn’t even feel for a heartbeat or see if he was breathing. Was she just talking to a dead man?

She felt in her breastbone rather than heard in her ears, as if calling to her from a great distance:

_...Rey?..._

“Ben!” She yelled aloud. It was his voice, just a breath, and maybe she was really, truly losing it, but she used her reserves of strength to work to lift him, even though he had several inches and perhaps half her body’s weight in muscle on her. Perhaps the Force was with her then, or perhaps adrenaline was pumping, or maybe she really was strong enough to lift him, but she put him over her shoulder and started the way back to the ship.

She heard him again, though it sounded like his voice was receding. _Wait for me. I’m coming._

vii.

“It is a _miracle_ he is alive,” Jannah said. Her tone was amazed. “You said you think the Force helped heal him?”

“Something like that,” Rey said from her perch across the room. She didn’t have the emotional bandwidth to explain more. After Jannah and BB-8 looked him over and saw that he was malnourished, dangerously low on oxygen, and almost frozen through - never mind the injuries from the fights and fall before that were going to get a lot worse when he thawed - Ben had been hooked up to an oxygen tank.

“My concern is,” Jannah said, “I don’t think we should heat him up here.”

“What?” Rose and Jessika asked. Zorii was impassive behind her helmet. Rey felt like she’d heard them from underwater.

“These breaks, the bleeding - he’s going to get worse before he gets better. A lot worse,” Jannah explained. “And we _do not have_ the medical accoutrement necessary to keep him alive for the next two days if he thaws out. So as much as I understand the fear, we need to put him in the ice bath and just fly like hell.”

“What’s the other option?” Rey asked.

“BB and I _try_ to keep him alive. Best-case scenario, he’s in critical condition for the next three days. Worst case, he’s warm and dead when we land.” Jannah was looking at Rey as she said this. In fact, all of them were looking at Rey, even BB-8. Except Ben, who was somewhere closer to dead than unconscious.

“Why are you all staring at me?” She asked.

“You seem like the one best suited to have a say,” Jannah explained.

Zorii huffed out a laugh. “Haven’t seen him naked and now you’re his medical proxy! This is all out of order.”

Rey sucked in a breath. It didn’t seem right she should get to decide, but there was no one else to do it.

“Okay,” Rey said. “Keep him cold. Let’s go.”

Jannah, Rose, and Zorii went to a storage container and dumped Ben into it as gently as they could. Then, with this makeshift bathtub, they put as much ice on him as they could, replacing it when it melted and creating a massive puddle of water that flooded the central region of the ship as the next few days passed.

For her own part, Rey sat down in the pilot’s seat when they went to leave and did not get out of it for the next two full days. Through pure adrenaline and a caffeine injection she annoyed Rose into giving her, Rey flew them through too many lightspeed jumps and got them there in 52 hours. It was good that it wasn’t much longer, because Rose and Jessika had been giving her increasingly anxious reports on the _Falcon’s_ condition, especially in the last twelve hours.

When they touched down on the base, the ship was smoking slightly, and there was something happening in the engine that made the entire ship shudder under her feet. Though that might have been Rey, whose knees were shaking under her in fatigue when she stood up at last. Her knees, hips, and back popped along the joints like a glowstick when she walked off the ship.

Jannah had already unloaded Ben off the ship and into a waiting carrier. Droids beeped and whirred and healers spoke in rapid-fire jargon as they wheeled him off to the medical bay. With the ice, Ben had stayed frigid for most of the duration of their trip. He was still warmer to the touch than he was when Rey first brought him on the ship, and Rey had noticed the blood warming and dripping down his face, soaking his hair.

“Rey!” Finn cried, rushing towards her. He seemed back to a hundred percent as he caught her in a tight, tight hug, not seeming to notice or care about her greasy hair or odor. Poe hugged her from behind on her other side, sandwiching Rey to her as he was wont to do, but that, unfortunately, gave him a noseful of her hair.

“Ew, Rey,” Poe said.

“I’m sorry I’m not _Finn,_ but we girls aren’t so terrible, Poe - hey!” Rey cried when Poe snatched her arm in his and started carting her off. He was moving her away from the common barracks where Rey’s room was and steering her towards the general’s quarters. “Hey, where are you taking me?”

“I,” Poe announced, “Am taking you to Finn’s and my room to shower, and then to eat, and then to sleep. The bonus of being general?”

“Co-general,” Finn reminded him.

“Yes, darling, _co_ -general,” Poe said, rolling his eyes, “The bonus of being co-general is the private room and private bathroom. You are going to get cleaned up and eat and sleep so that you look as radiant as you are when Ben wakes up to see you at his bedside.”

“I’m -” Rey tried to protest, but she was, one, too tired to do so, and two, knew that her plan _was_ to sit at Ben’s bedside until he awoke.

Poe smirked down at her and pulled her into the bedroom he and Finn shared. Rey had too little energy to admire the decor aside from the _massive_ bed with the _very comfortable_ sheets before Poe unceremoniously shoved her into the bathroom, shut the door, and only opened it again to toss in one of Finn’s shirts and a pair of pants.

Rey rolled her eyes but smiled to herself. She turned on the shower and the hot spray felt so good on her sore, aching muscles (and the shoulder she had strained when she lifted Ben) she nearly cried. She used liberal amounts of soap and shampoo to feel clean and liberal amounts of Poe’s fancy conditioner because it smelled delicious and because it would drive him crazy. Once she was done, her eyes were so heavy that she quickly rinsed out her mouth with mouthwash and fell face-first into bed.

viii.

She was _ravenous_ when she awoke some twelve hours later, and she mused that she really needed to start using some healthier coping mechanisms given everything that has happened the past few weeks. Fortunately, Finn and Rose were there when she awoke, and they filled her in on what happened when they took Ben off the ship.

Just as Jannah predicted, Ben’s situation deteriorated rapidly as the stasis wore off. The bleeding renewed with vigor, but his ribs, while tender, held steady. There were breaks in his legs and a head injury from the fall that caused massive hemorrhaging and something called a compound fracture. Between the medical professionals and the droids, Ben managed to pull through, though now he was in a medically-induced coma to let his body heal and rebuild his strength.

Rey had never thought she would be someone to sit on someone’s bedside until they awoke, but Finn had proved her wrong. And now, almost a year later, Rey found herself sitting back beside someone as machines pumped them full of chemicals and nutrients to keep them alive. At least this time she knew he would wake up. She sat cross-legged in a chair beside the bed, reading old texts and ruminating on the future of the Jedi. And with him.

But she had more control over the former than the latter.

Ben looked different sitting in that hospital bed - smaller and younger than he really was. He’d been cleaned up, at least, his hair washed and spread around his head like a sleeping princess. Wires ran under his shirt to keep his vitals.

“You better wake up soon,” Rey told him two days after they had arrived. “Because the suspense is going to kill me, and people keep giving me weird looks and asking questions about why are you here, are you our prisoner, are we dating, that I don’t know how to answer, and it’ll be very helpful to talk things out with you when you do.”

Ben didn’t respond.

“And I’d like to kiss you again, but I’d rather you be awake for that,” Rey added, as if that would help. She reached for his hand, running her fingers over his knuckles, the skin spackled with beauty marks and healed-over scars. But now he was almost feverishly warm to the touch, which had to be better than when he was frozen.

But he didn’t wake up. 

In fact, he didn’t wake up for another week. But finally, he came to when Rey was thinking out loud about the Jedi question to him, eyes sliding open between one sentence and the next.

“...I admit, I do like the idea of making this roving space school in a ship. How cool would that be? Moving to all kinds of different Temples and places, letting the younglings see their families and the galaxy. But that kind of maintenance of the ship and food would be expensive. We could do jobs? But I can’t make kids do that, I did that too much on Jakku. Maybe we do it on a single planet, and instead of taking just one child, the whole family relocates? But then I don’t want to make families choose to leave. There are so many different kinds of people and cultures, that will end up with issues. Maybe a Force-sensitive, integrated settlement can happen later. What about just making a roaming Jedi school? But then it’s not central, and that makes so many logistics questions of how to get around, how to sort out demand when there’s more than one child who wants training. We could split up, I guess, but I think we’re more effective together - as teachers, I mean. In training. Or maybe we just say fuck the Jedi and join up with whatever it is the Resistance is doing now. Poe and Finn are going to talk to the Senate about it. Can you believe it? Those two off representing the Resistance, coming up with what we’re going to do now. Maybe we can just hop on with them, help with relief efforts, help if anyone’s Force-sensitive, and then scoot? But then that’s a lot of people on a big ship, and more if people leave, and basically I have no idea what to do so you better _wake up_ so I’m not talking to the air.”

“You’re not talking to the air.”

Rey’s head snapped up. With the smirk of someone who had heard far too much, Ben was peering down at her. It made the corners of his eyes curl up in laugh lines. His expression was warm, familiar, affectionate, and that _smile_ \- if she wasn’t before, Rey was sunk now.

With a wordless cry, Rey jumped out of her chair, flinging her arms around his neck. Ben caught her with a surprised _oof,_ but his hands reflexively went to her waist to steady her. He was warm and broad and he held her close like he had on Exegol, when he brought her back to life and let her kiss him and faded away - but that nightmare was over, because he was here, alive, breathing, heart pounding under her ear and she was in his arms again.

It was like reconnecting with an old friend. It was like coming home.

There were happy tears now, tears that Rey swallowed as best she could and let soak the fabric of Ben’s hospital gown. He ran his hands gently up and down her back, rubbed soothing circles in the space between her shoulder blades.

“You’re so tense,” He observed. “Have you been _sleeping_ here?”

“No,” Rey lied unconvincingly.

“Yes,” Rose said from the doorway. Rey jumped up, flushing up her neck. She made to move away but Ben’s arms around her made her pause. And Rose acted like she was not in any way surprised to find Rey in a compromising position in Ben’s bed. Over her shoulders were the rest of their crew that made the flight to the Unknown Regions.

“Caught,” Ben huffed teasingly into Rey’s ear. She felt herself flush harder. She still couldn’t see Zorii’s face, but she knew the woman was grinning at her under her helmet.

“Good to see you up, Solo,” Jessika said. 

“It’s good to be up,” Ben said. His voice was a low rumble in Rey’s ear. “Do I have you all to thank, as well, for getting me out of there?”

“You do,” Jannah said.

“She kept you alive until we landed, you know,” Zorii said.

“And _she_ helped us get through an asteroid belt,” Jannah added.

“Rose kept the ship in the sky,” Jessika pointed out.

“Well, _you_ were the best co-pilot I could have asked for,” Rey reminded her.

“You got us there,” Rose told Rey, beaming. “You found where we needed to go, flew us there, carried Ben’s massive ass back to the ship -”

“Hey,” Ben said, mock-affronted.

“-And flew us back,” Rose finished. “I love you and am proud of you, Rey, and as much as I may want to run you over with an X-Wing, Ben Solo, this Jedi seems to want to give you a chance, so I will, too.”

Ben blinked in the wake of her speech, but then a slow grin spread over his face. “That’s more than I could ever ask for. Thank you for giving me the chance to be better. I’m sorry I’ve hurt you.”

Rose _hmphed_ , but she sent Rey a wink and left them with a cheery wave.

“Don’t fuck up,” Jessika warned Ben. “We will be keeping an eye on you.”

“I’d expect nothing less,” Ben said honestly. The other three women walked out of the room, shutting the door behind them. It was quiet for a few long moments.

“That went... _so_ well,” Ben observed, looking down at Rey with bemusement. “This is your doing.”

Rey laughed. “Mine?”

“Yes, yours. You’re so good it’s rubbed off on the rest of them _and_ me,” Ben said. “I always feared that I’d be shot on sight if I tried to come back.”

“Finn and Poe are off-world. You still might,” Rey warned. Ben laughed.

“I heard. I _also_ heard all your thoughts about the Jedi training. I actually rather like the idea of a traveling airship, roaming the galaxy,” Ben told her. “See the sights, don’t make kids leave their families if they don’t want to, reconnect with old Jedi temples, help the refugees we can. If we get a ship big enough, like an old repurposed warship? We’d have more than enough room for everyone, and cargo. We could take the relief effort anywhere.”

Rey blinked. “That...that sounds perfect.”

_It sounds like everything we all hoped for,_ she thought. _It’s home and family and duty and helping others all in one, and you’ll be there. It’s all I want and I want it with you._

Then Rey remembered what Ben had said, and she blushed. “You...said you heard me?”

Ben’s smile widened. “I did.”

His grin was too knowing, almost smug. Rey blinked. “So...how _much_ do you remember? You heard all my planning, I see. And you know Poe and Finn are gone. Did you hear me say, um, anything else? At any point?”

Ben’s eyes had the nerve to _twinkle_. “You need to be more specific, Rey.”

“Ugh,” Rey groaned. “I _mean_ ,” She asked, poking him in the chest, “Of the _other times_ I came in here to talk like a fool, did you hear anything of a more, ah, personal nature?”

“Maybe,” Ben said, the word drawn out too long. “Can you jog my memory? You’ve said a lot to me, and I was out of it -”

“ _Ben_ ,” Rey ground out, running out of patience.

“Oh! This?” Ben asked, and then he kissed her. 

It was somehow sudden and seemed to happen in slow motion: the press of his mouth to hers, warm and soft and _achingly_ tender. It was sweet and chaste and slow. Her hands curled in the fabric of his hospital gown. His hands moved to cup her face, fingertips catching over stray tears and tracing the line of her cheekbones. It was a kiss that said _I’m sorry_ and _thank you for bringing me back_ and _this is the beginning, a beautiful beginning, I promise._

They separated for air. “Thank you, Rey,” He told her, and she knew it wasn’t just for saving him. It was for not giving up on him, for challenging him, for standing with her side and her morals and the light and dragging him, kicking and screaming, from himself. For seeing him at his worst and lowest and demanding him to be better regardless. And he wanted to be. He _would_ be.

Rey knew he would, or else she would just kick him down another ravine.

Ben yawned. 

“Does my kiss bore you?” Rey asked, mock-affronted.

“Yes,” Ben said baldly. “So boring that it’s putting me to sleep.”

He tilted back, pulling Rey with him. She squeaked, and Ben immediately loosened her arms.

“Sorry,” he told her. “I meant for that to be roguishly charming, but that may not have landed. Dad always seemed to do that thing so much better than I did.”

Rey laughed and adjusted herself so she was laying beside him. “I don’t mind, actually. That chair wasn’t actually very comfortable. I could nap.”

“Good,” Ben told her. His voice was low, already a sleepy, dozing-off rumble. “Because I really would like for you to stay.”

“For your nap?” Rey snagged an extra blanket and drew it over herself, laying her head on his shoulder. Already the comfort of the bed and his body heat were lulling her into relaxation she hadn’t known since - she didn’t even know.

She was warm, safe, fed. She had found her purpose, her friends, her _family_. And Ben was alive.

“We’ll start there,” Ben said, and he was asleep between one breath and the next. Rey curled up next to him and fell asleep, too.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading!!! i'm thinking of doing an epilogue piece, or a version of this from ben's pov. let me know what you think?  
> i know rey cries a lot in this, but also she feels a lot and i imagine trying to sustain these kinds of force visions/projections are extremtly physically and emotionally exhausting.  
> if you enjoyed, please comment and kudos!


End file.
